Orange is the New Black on Netflix is surprisingly good. A predominantly female and interesting looking cast, well rounded characters, emotional depth without the whole thing feeling unnecessarily overwrought and the plot didn't always go the way you expected it to. Top notch. Also Captain Janeway as a tough Russian matriarch!

Have also just started watching the first season of Arrow although I'm not sure why, because everyone looks the same and no one can act but it is somehow compelling me to see where it goes anyway...

@Badbear Arrow gets surprisingly good by the end of the season. It's not great by any means, but it makes some unexpected choices storywise, and the performances improve once the characters and their relationships are better defined.

I like Orange Is The New Black, but it's basically just Prisoner: Cell Block L Word, innit?@badbear - sadly, the Arrow island is staying around... at least for the planned 5 season run. I enjoy the extended origin story, and it gets huge plusses for Fucking Crixus as Slade Wilson.

I finished binge watching "Fringe". Overall I enjoyed it a lot. I thought season 4 was a little wonky in places, but I thought season 5 wrapped everything up nicely. I thought it was a good show, but the weakest link in it was Joshua Jackson. I thought he was out classed by the other cast members and I thought he and Ann Torv had ZERO chemistry between them. I can't help but wonder how much stronger the show would've been if someone else played Peter Bishop's part.

@cat vincentWell yes I guess it is although I've never seen either of those shows so I can't speak to that. Honestly though I feel so relieved to be watching a show that has more diverse casting requirements than "good looking and white" that I may be forgiving it too much.

Really enjoying The Americans at the moment. If you want a spooks-in-the-suburbs melodrama, it knocks spots off Homeland. The setup is daft of course (FBI guy moves in across the street from the KGB officers he's looking for). I wish they'd play up the 80s a little more in the soundtrack, though.

Just watched the season finale of Falling Skies, which has been pretty fun brain-bubblegum as scifi goes (at least seasons 2 and 3). But aaaargh, they had to pull one of the most annoying tropes in scifi after "alien realizes what love/emotions are".

Someone please tell me, what the heck was all the "human exceptionalism" in the end. "We humans are sooooooo awesome that we are unique in the universe", and we'll show it by being petulant little kids and refusing to do what's sensible. The whole "twist" in the end about the volm wanting to relocate people to a safe area was so obvious and badly handled that it really soured the whole season for me, which had been pretty fun so far. Really lazy writing.

See, that's why I loved Defiance. Stahma Tarr is an alien and she understands perfectly well what love is. It's an irrational emotion that she can use to manipulate those around in ways that Cersei Lannister can only dream about.

I watched the first episode last year and went in eye rolling a bit, mostly because a couple freinds were raving about it and I finally wanted them to shut up. So freaking hilarious. I was very happy to be wrong about that one.

Continuum continues to surprise and interest me. I love how complicated it's getting and I love how it doesn't hold your hand as a viewer, but trusts that you've been paying attention. This week Garza freed herself from handcuffs by picking the lock with her nipple=piercings, the existence of which were casually shown a couple of episodes earlier.

@johnjones - guess you're watching the US timing - the season ended in Canada already (and with other Completely Legal Means), so I talked about that glorious demonstration of Chekhov's Nipple Piercings about a month ago. But that's cool.

Most of the press has been pretty negative for Low Winter Sun, actually. The pilot was almost entirely situational set-up, with very little about who the characters are as people. I expect that the later episodes will address that. It feels very much like a slow burn that will come together at the mid point of the season.